The present invention relates to multi-purpose folding tools, and in particular to folding scissors incorporated in such tools.
Folding scissors of various types have been known for many years and have long been included in multi-purpose folding tools. In the past, most folding scissors in such multi-purpose tools have been very small, and therefore relatively ineffective.
One type of folding scissors in a multi-purpose tool is disclosed, for example, in Moser U.S. Pat. No. 696,995. In that type of tool one blade of a pair of scissors has an extended handle which is attached to pivot the entire pair of scissors into a storage slot in a knife handle. A second handle and its attached scissors blade are also stowed in the same slot, with the scissors blades and handles generally parallel with one another. A small leaf spring is typically used to urge the handles apart from each other to open the blades of such a pair of miniature scissors, and the spring is kept compressed when the scissors are in the stowed position. The spring typically used in such scissors is easily lost or bent accidentally to an inoperative condition.
East German Patent Publication 2,322,229 discloses another type of folding scissors using a long spring in a handle of a tool to move an auxiliary lever to urge a movable scissors handle toward a blade-opening position. This arrangement, however, fails to hold the main scissors handle stably fixed relative to the tool handle when the movable scissors handle and blade are urged in a blade-closing direction with respect to the main blade.
German Patent No. 145784 discloses a tool incorporating a folding handle with a pair of scissors blades which can be stowed within a multi-purpose tool handle, but such scissors include the previously mentioned type of spring or none at all.
In previously known folding scissors including a spring for opening the scissors blades, the force needed to move the blades in a closing or cutting direction has increased with continued closing movement of the blades. It is therefore desired to provide scissors which are easier to use in that the force needed to close the blades completely is not greatly increased over that required to close the blades partially during a cutting stroke of the scissors.
What is needed, then, is an improved multi-purpose folding tool including folding scissors which are easily used, which provides ample leverage through handles of adequate length, which are easily stowed within the handle of the multi-purpose folding tool, and which do not interfere with the utility of other folding tool bits included in the multi-purpose folding tool. It is also desired for such folding scissors to be larger than previously available folding scissors included in a multi-purpose folding tool of a comparable size, and that the entire tool in a folded configuration can be easily carried in a person's pocket without causing unnecessary wear of the fabric of the pocket.